Come Here From Over There Often?

A group of Chinese researchers propose what they call the “shared-direction effect” in an upcoming paper in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Couples who commute in the same direction, even if they don’t travel on the same train or even leave at the same time, seem to be happier together than those who don’t, all other things considered. “That is, mere similarity in the direction of commuting to work increases marital satisfaction,” the authors report.

This story on The Atlantic Cities does not say whether “not going anywhere” counts as “the same direction” but they did study partners who took the same route to a given task (the gym) and the results were the same. What about taking out the trash? See, but it doesn’t make sense to take the trash out the front door because the back door is not only in the kitchen, but it’s closer to the dumpster. I loved youuu…